Major Honour For Local Alcohol Task Force

Pictured with the Charter of Commitment, where North Dublin Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force were selected as National Community Action on Alcohol Programme site for 2016 are Darragh O’Brien TD (Chairperson of the North Dublin Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force), Anne Timoney (National Lead for CAAP) and the board of management inof the task force

26th April 2016

Following a comprehensive scoring process, the North Dublin Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force, which is based in Swords, has been selected as a site for the National NCAAP (National Community Action on Alcohol Programme) for 2016.
They have been selected as an ‘implementation site’ for the NCAAP which is a huge honour for the task force. This means the North County area has been selected as a site for the National Community Action on Alcohol Programme. The programme also encourages people to explore their own attitudes to alcohol. North County Dublin will have its own community action plan on alcohol that will include specific actions to achieve them. The plan and work will be developed, led and implemented by the community in partnership with key partner agencies. The committee to oversee this work will be convening in the next month with lots of exciting initiatives to follow. On 8th April last, Anne Timoney Meehan, the National Lead for CAAP visited the task force to brief them on the process. At that inaugural meeting, Darragh O ‘Brien T.D. (Chairperson) and Brid Walsh (Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force Coordinator, North Dublin), along with Ms Timoney formally signed the Charter of Commitment.
Chairperson, Darragh O’Brien TD spoke to the County Leader, “This is great news for the North County community. As you know, we have been doing a lot of work to support local communities in North County Dublin with alcohol issues. The establishment of the North Dublin Community Care Service in summer 2014 was a huge step,” he said.
“We also held our Alcohol Conference which had 200 community partners from the area attend and we had Dr Adam Winstock the leading addiction expert and psychiatrist who delivered a masterclass in alcohol clinical training to nearly 100 treatment providers from north Dublin which was a huge success’.
Really the whole reason we applied to be an implementation site was because we want to reduce the overall alcohol related harm in our area,” said O’Brien.
The key feature of the National CAAP is that it is centred on ‘Community Action’ so communities come together and take action to enable change. O’Brien explained that the taskforce will be working with a range of stakeholders to develop a Community Alcohol Action Plan. “We need to recognise that, although alcohol is used for relaxation and enjoyment and it does contribute to the Irish economy, it also has major public health implications for individuals, families and the wider community’. We are so proud to be leading out on this over the coming year and have a series of events and actions which will help us with delivering on our alcohol action plan thanks to the funding received from the Dormant Accounts Fund in Pobal. “We will continue to report on the developments and events as they happen,” concluded O’Brien.